Belgrade and Zagreb
IT is just possible that the break-up of the Coalition Government in Jugoslavia will bring an easement to the long and sterile quarrel between the Serbs and the Croats. It is at least a good sign that the Serb Democrats, who have caused Father Koroshetz's Ministry to resign, are alive to the intense dangers of letting the quarrel between Belgrade and Zagreb continue. The anti-Croat policy of the Government was unfortunately determined by the Radicals, who are by far the strongest of the four parties which formed the Coalition. We must wait now to see whether good sense will result from a wholesome warning. It is not certain when we write that the King will accept Father Koroshetz's resigns- tion, but even if Father Koroshetz returns to office he may feel that events have indicated a policy of appease- ment at Zagreb.
Everybody remembers the cause of the Croats' present particular-hatred of the Serbs. Last June M. Ratchitch, a Serb Radical, produced a pistol in the Skupshtina and shot -dead two Croat deputies and fatally -wounded M. Raditch, the famous Croat leader. The Serbs have long maintained such a posture of superiority and arro- gance towards the Croats that the Croats declared that the hand of the Government was behind M. Ratchitch. This, of course, was a preposterous charge.. The Serbs have the Croats sufficiently in subjection without want- ing to shoot them. When however, the accusation was deliberately made by responsible Croat leaders, it was not -to be wondered at that the Croat peasants firmly believed it. The result was furious demonstrations throughout Croatia, and a boycott, which is not yet ended, of the Skupshtina.
The Government at Belgrade could easily have behaved with more tolerance in the presence of these manifesta- tions. For, after all, the Croats had received extreme provocation; and the heedless acts of men .who believe themselves to be rising in righteous wrath should not be -measured - by- a too precise standard. Unhappily the Serbs are the Prussians of Jugoslavia. They have maintained for themselves- ever since the creation of the Triune Kingdom a heavy over-representation of their interests - --the Skupshtina,- they have appropriated an undue proportion of civil and military appointments, and they have relieved themselves of some taxation at the expense of the Croats and Slovenes. It is not, in their nature to be patient and they certainly have not been patient with Croatia. They established a military Government at -Zagreb, and relations between Belgrade and -Zagreb can hardly be said to exist. - It is as though two nations had resorted to a diplomatic rupture. Belgrade has not yet even brought. M. liatchitch to trial for murder, and this laxity is, of course, inter- preted at Zagreb as yet another proof that the Govern- ment inspired his act.
Impartial outsiders -see faults -OA both sides and, that being so, they think that both sides will be to blame if some improvement cannot be got out of the present opportunity. At Belgrade there is, as we have seen, a dawning recognition of the grievances of the Croats-; at Zagreb there have been several signs of moderation. The hair-raising demonstrations, for example, which had been-planned by Croats to take place on the birthday of the King, about three weeks ago, were kept within decent limits, chiefly, we may suppose, by the wise. influence of M. Pribitchevitch. True, M. Pribitchevitch represents the Serbs who used to belong to Austria- Hungary, but he is a good friend to the. Croats. He knows as well as any man that the only result of chaos in Croatia would be the triumph of those anarchical elements which, in the name of Communism, are always at work. Communists have a very intelligible dread of peasant prosperity. In Russia it is the extraordinary power of resistance, the vis inertias, of the peasants which has so far defeated Communism. In more than one Balkan country the " Green Rising "—the immense power of a. peasant democracy—is the most significant fact of to-day. The Croats will throw all their chances away, if they do not temper anger with a quiet shrewdness.
Their demand for - complete independence from the Serbs is nonsensical. It would mean the collapse of the Triune Kingdom and a general game of grab among the neighbours of Jugoslavia. It is possible that a federal system might work, but the one certain thing is that the material unity of Jugoslavia must be preserved.
That is as essential to the existence of Jugoslavia as Lincoln perceived the preservation of the Union to be essential to America. Whatever the future solution may be, the state of affairs now is a sorry sequel to the- yearn- ings of the South Slays who ate their hearts out under the rule of Austria-Hungary. , In those days they "-wept by the waters of -Babylon," but since the Great War gave them their opportunity to rebuild Zion they have seemed to be as unhappy as ever. One remembers with a sense of irony that in the earliest Home Rule debates in this country Mr. Gladstone used to cite the degree of autonomy enjoyed by the Croats under Austria- Hungary as an example of what might be granted to Ireland. Now Southern Ireland is settled ; if she has any enemy it is only herself ; but Croatia remains as an illustration of how unwarrantable Mr. Gladstone's analogy was, and how often a change of allegiance proves to be the substitution of King • Stork for King Log. The Croats, now that events are giving them a new opening, might imitate the good tactics of the Slovenes, who do not indeed like the Serbs but have made it a point of policy to " live "• with them.
There is another reason why both Serbs and Croats should hasten to make an• end of their enmity. Foreign credit is badly needed. No banker would accept as a good debtor a man who kept dawdling along the extreme edge of an abyss. Jugoslavia could do nothing more likely to create foreign confidence in her than first to compose the superfluous quarrel and secondly to negotiate a treaty of friendship with Italy. Little is known as yet about the proposal for a new Treaty with Italy, but it is not improbable that an attempt will be made to negotiate such a Treaty as the Treaty of Rome (which at present governs the relations of Jugoslavia and Italy) which will expire on January .27. It has been reported that the Jugoslav Minister in Rome asked for a renewal of this Treaty and that Signor Mussolini replied that he would much prefer a new and wider Treaty. The Treaty of Rome does not even mention Albania, which is the main cause of friction between the two countries.
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